Kimberly Mounts, ‘rising star’ hedge fund adviser, dies at 48

She died of cardiac arrest

Kimberly Mounts, named a hedge fund “rising star” by Institutional Investor magazine in 2012 for her stewardship of MAP Alternative Asset Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, has died. She was 48.

She died of cardiac arrest on Oct. 25 at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, according to her brother, Scott Mounts.

She had been in a drug-induced coma since Oct. 20, when she first went into cardiac arrest following a workout at her gym, her brother said. “She was a vegetarian, didn’t drink, didn’t smoke and worked out religiously,” he said yesterday in a telephone interview.

A chartered alternative investment analyst, Mounts founded MAP Alternative Asset Management in 2006 following jobs in New York at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, where she specialized in fixed-income derivatives.

MAP, with fewer than 10 employees, is an investment adviser with input on more than $35 billion in client assets, specializing in managing risk in fixed-income portfolios, according to Marco Ricciardulli, a senior consultant. Clients include large public and corporate pensions. A planned fixed- income fund of hedge funds, with a focus on emerging managers, has yet to open, Ricciardulli said.

The firm’s work is an example of “affirmative investing” by pension funds and other institutional investors who seek, by practice or law, to give part of their business to women-owned and minority-owned investment companies.

‘Cultural Diversity’

In a notice it placed on the website of the Association of Asian American Investment Managers, for instance, Mounts’ firm said it was “seeking minority and women-owned hedge funds for their database and consideration by one of their Fortune 100 corporate pension clients.”

The notice continued, “There are no minimum requirements in relation to assets under management, track record or history. All strategies and domiciles will be considered.”

In naming Mounts one of its 2012 “hedge fund rising stars,” Institutional Investor cited her expertise in credit derivatives as well as her “interest in cultural diversity,” noting that her firm “identifies hedge-fund firms owned by high-profile women or minority members.”

Mounts was a founding member of the Southern California chapter of 100 Women in Hedge Funds and was active in 85 Broads and Broads Circle.

White House

“By being involved in these networks for professional women, I hope to open doors for other women and help them recognize the opportunities that are out there,” she said, according to an article on theglasshammer.com, a website for female business executives.

Mounts was among 150 business leaders invited to Washington in November 2011 for a forum on jobs and the economy hosted by the White House Business Council.

Judith Kimberly Mounts was born on Sept. 18, 1965, in Duarte, California, one of seven children of Robert Francis Mounts and the former Joan Francis Steiger.

She graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. She went to work as a systems engineer on a secret satellite program, working with the U.S. Army and large defense contractors, according to the profile on theglasshammer.com.

She moved to New York and joined Morgan Stanley as an information-technology analyst on the mortgage-backed securities desk.

Derivatives Background

In 1998 she received a master’s in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, then returned to Morgan Stanley to work on fixed-income derivatives -- “creating, analyzing and solving complex financial transactions,” she said, according to the profile.

At Goldman Sachs from 1996 to 2000, Mounts helped structure and price derivatives for hedge funds and institutional investors.

On LinkedIn.com, she listed her title at Goldman Sachs as vice president, and at Morgan Stanley as associate.

She was married and divorced, her brother said.

In addition to her brother, survivors include her mother and four sisters, Mary Williams, Katherine Mounts, Susan Simmons, and Linda Rasic. A second brother, Robert Francis Mounts, died in March.